A Four Season Garden

 Well, it's Tuesday the 19th, meaning less than a day until Biden takes office. The Dems won't be able to do everything they want, but here's hoping they get some important stuff done.

Even though we're only a month removed from the winter solstice, I'm already noticing the days being longer. Yea!

Here are a few more photos from my winter garden. I encourage everyone to make their garden a four season garden. That's not hard. Spring and summer are easy of course; there lots of ways to add color to Fall gardens (Rudbeckias, Salvias etc) and for winter that can be early blooming Camellias, lots of cacti and succulents, ferns, annual color such as primrose and calendula, plus hellebores and some very early blooming bulbs. A 4 season garden means there's always something of interest going on.

Black lotus. This perennial, ever blooming cousin to the ground cover Lotus Amazon Sunset, is a surprisingly hardy shrub and much more drought tolerant than its 'cousin.'

Aloe arborescens variegata. One of the easiest and most striking aloes to grow.

Even though it's not in bloom, my Eriogonum crocatum supplies handsome silver foliage year round.

People in our nursery always inquire about this colorful shrub. It's Abelia Kaleidoscope and displays a variety of golds, pinks and greens throughout the year.

Epiphyllum variety. This is my first ever flower on this dramatic cactus. They offer a variety of bright colors.

Even the buds on Camellias can be attractive. Here's my Camellia Francie L. variegated, already showing some of the pink and white colors it will display when open.

Ferns are great way to add interest to a winter garden. There are so many interesting species and forms, a fern for everybody's tastes. This is a Polypodium guttatum. Known as Polypodys, they're widespread.

My Lace fern has established itself very nicely in my backyard. To its left is a variegated Fatshedera.

One of the more unusual ferns has a funny but sort of appropriate common name - Blue Ber's Paw fern. I had been growing it indoors but since I moved it outside it has nearly doubled in size.

South African bulbs are some of the earliest to bloom. Heading that list are Cowslips (Lachenalia). Here's my L. aloides 'Orange.' Not sure where they get the orange part but its flowers are lovely nonetheless.

Here is that Camellia Francie L. variegated flower now open. This is one of the famous 'reticulata' camellias, known as queens of the camellia world due to their extravagantly ruffled flowers and ofttimes wavy petals.

Here's another reticulata hybrid. It's Camellia Frank Hauser. I love its coral pink color.

One could easily add Cupheas to the list of Fall gardens, even some to the Winter list. That's the case for this Cuphea Oreophila, which blooms from April through January.

I mentioned South African bulbs. Here's another, a species Gladiolus called Las Vegas. Most of the commonly available gladiolas are hybrids of S. African species. This Gladiolus primulinus variety is a showy one and returns like clockwork each year.

Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star.' As those who follow my blog know, I'm really into dwarf conifers. Here's a new one. It will only get 2-3' tall and 4' wide but take many years to achieve even that modest size.

Violas and pansies are a nice way to add winter color to a garden. I have many bulbs in pots - especially many pots of lilies - and they look so bare until they send up shoots that in the winter I over plant with winter and spring color.

One of my favorite plants for 2020, this Oxalis 'White Pillow' forms a dense mound of mint green leaves, then little white flowers come spring.